4G LTE vs. Dual-Core Processor

[jinwons]

i read that the camera is not that great on the Revolution being only a 5mp

I agree that Charge camera is probably better based on reviews. But 8mp vs 5mp sensor on phone camera doesn't mean much to me. The small lens optics, sensor size on phone camera is simply not able to take advantage of high pixel count on it. As long as Revolution camera does better than Tbolt, DX2, it's ok for me.

 

[Rominucka]

Is the Charge better than the Indulge? My position at Verizon is just about sealed. I'll get a sickly sweet deal on monthly rates but by law I can't sign a contract so I have to pay full for the phone with a small discount.

I refuse to go any lower than 4G. I'm too used to it. And I really don't care about price. Even at $300, I'll make my money back in less than a year compared to the $60 a month I pay for Metro.

As long as the Charge is as good or better than my Indulge I'll be fine. I'm brand-loyal to Samsung, but I also hear bad things about Blur, even though I have massive respect for the Motorola company and their history.
Gorilla glass would be nice. My boss' Droid X has no screen protector and has been dropped on its face a number of times and there isn't even a scratch.

I don't know. I have some thinking to do.

 

[rldev]

No it's not. It runs at the same frequency but it's a minor refresh:

New or old hummingbird cpu? - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

But I agree, I got the Charge and my friend got the Infuse yesterday and that thing is better than the Charge for $100 less. You're paying for the LTE. Hopefully the GS2 will be LTE, I don't mind paying $300 for that.

I just returned the Infuse for the Charge. Boy it is like 2 completely different phones. The Infuse is so much better. I hate the Charge. Couple that with Verizon's slow 3G. Not sure what I am going to do. I have 90 days with Costco if I stick it out on Verizon. I guess we will know this week about the Galaxy S2.

 

[rushmore]

Hummingbird was renumbered due to the LTE bridging the chipset needed for LTE.

Speaking of LTE, what is the point of it with tiered data? Seems a contradiction.

 

[stevehoffman]

I am happily using my Droid Charge. It's in a 4G area. I find it VERY fast. It could well be that some other phones are faster. I don't know and don't care. Hell, this phone is PLENTY fast.

For example, the time it takes for a voice-search to be translated into text is so much faster than what I experienced on my previous Droid phone on the 3G network. The time to connect to, and the stability of the connection, when I listen to sports games on the phone -- much better with the Droid Charge. Etc. etc.

Some of these folks looking at benchmarks and stuff -- fine, I'm glad some people sweat those details -- but as a user of this phone, I am telling you it is PLENTY fast for me .... I am finding it a awesome experience to use this phone on the 4G network, even without dual-core.

I am not criticizing other phones, and I'm sure there are other good phones and of course if one is willing to wait later this year there will be other phone options, including dual-core 4G.

But I would highly recommend the Droid Charge if you're in a 4G area.

 

[jinwons]

Hummingbird was renumbered due to the LTE bridging the chipset needed for LTE.

Speaking of LTE, what is the point of it with tiered data? Seems a contradiction.

Whether you like it or not, LTE is the future on VZW. This will be probably the last year they roll out 3G only high end phones like Dinc2, DX2.

 

[stevehoffman]

Hummingbird was renumbered due to the LTE bridging the chipset needed for LTE.

Speaking of LTE, what is the point of it with tiered data? Seems a contradiction.

I recommend you take a basic college-level Economics class and you will be able to answer your own question about why a company might want to sell its services on a tiered basis (so those who use the service more pay more) rather than sell its services on a one-price "all you can eat" basis. I don't mean this sarcastically, by the way. A basic understanding of micro-economics is very very useful in understand the way things work (in business, in government, in your personal live as a consumer, etc etc).!

 

[Janth]

I bash what deserves bashing and then move on like Cartman.

Been heavily shopping for a device, since a reliable person told me already what was posted today about unlimited data about to go bye-bye. I was going to hold off for a dual core Snap in late Summer or Fall, but the "big change" will almost certainly be before then.

Hence my agitation. My humble apologies to all. Seriously.

This is the EXACT SAME conundrum for myself! I can buy a droid charge right now and get my unlimited LTE for two years past when Verizon cuts off new unlimited contracts, but the phone itself is based on hardware thats already more than a year old. But since we literally have no clue if the Galaxy S2 will even have LTE waiting it out might not actually be worth it. Seems to me the best option would be to get the charge now, sell it when a dual core/LTE phone actually does come out.....

Does anyone have any experience selling an older phone? Do they usually sell quickly?

 

[Lifeoffroad]

You know what nobody is taking into consideration. The most important part of all this. If you don't buy and LTE phone now you will not be grandfathered into the unlimited LTE plans. Also going away is the early upgrades. So go ahead and wait for that galaxy s2 which is not officially slated and pay up the ass for 2mb of LTE downloads. Good luck with that. Oh and dual core if for multi tasking not gaming. So if your are running multiple programs at once or listening to music why to run games then it might make things about one tenth faster.

 

[addictedtocars]

You know what nobody is taking into consideration. The most important part of all this. If you don't buy and LTE phone now you will not be grandfathered into the unlimited LTE plans. Also going away is the early upgrades.

People keep saying this and it isn't true or false, VZ has NOT made any comments on what the tiered plans will be or how they will be implemented and how grandfathering will work. ATT lets you go from 3G to 4G unlimited data, I don't see why VZ wouldn't consider that as well. Until they actually annouce tiered plans everyonw shodul stop panicing. Besides I can fully understand the desire to have a stable reliable 3G phone and worry about what is grandfathered in 2 years vs. taking a LTE phone that may have issues just to think you are perpetually locked into unlimited data. I supect somewhere down the road VZ and ATT will force everyone regardless into a tiered plan.

 

[breadnatty08]

I am happily using my Droid Charge. It's in a 4G area. I find it VERY fast. It could well be that some other phones are faster. I don't know and don't care. Hell, this phone is PLENTY fast.

For example, the time it takes for a voice-search to be translated into text is so much faster than what I experienced on my previous Droid phone on the 3G network. The time to connect to, and the stability of the connection, when I listen to sports games on the phone -- much better with the Droid Charge. Etc. etc.

Some of these folks looking at benchmarks and stuff -- fine, I'm glad some people sweat those details -- but as a user of this phone, I am telling you it is PLENTY fast for me .... I am finding it a awesome experience to use this phone on the 4G network, even without dual-core.

I am not criticizing other phones, and I'm sure there are other good phones and of course if one is willing to wait later this year there will be other phone options, including dual-core 4G.

But I would highly recommend the Droid Charge if you're in a 4G area.

Steve I see you're also in DC. So, 4G coverage is pretty good around here? How far outside of the city (NoVa, Montgomery) are you able to get it? I'm still on my OG Droid and haven't seen a phone yet to upgrade to, but really curious about 4G coverage in the area.

 

[stevehoffman]

Steve I see you're also in DC. So, 4G coverage is pretty good around here? How far outside of the city (NoVa, Montgomery) are you able to get it? I'm still on my OG Droid and haven't seen a phone yet to upgrade to, but really curious about 4G coverage in the area.

Well, I haven't traveled to the outskirts of the region since getting the phone a couple of weeks ago. But certainly working fine in Montgomery County and a few spots in NoVA I've been to e.g., around Tysons Corner. Remember, a LOT more people live in those DC suburban counties like Montgomery and Fairfax Counties than live in the District itself -- I'm sure VZW made sure to cover the whole area. I'll be in Baltimore tomorrow night and will see how it is there).

I too had been rollin' with the OG Droid and am very happy I made the switch. Honestly, it's not just the quality of the screen but the SIZE (4.3" vs. OG's 3.7") that makes it so much easier to read the screen IMO. And 4G, also, is really good.

 

[jphila1v6r]

I am extremely interested in the Charge. But I have a question about what some of you keep raising. This whole idea of being grandfathered into unlimited 4g. Say I pick up the Charge today and renew my contract for another 2 years. Obviously I'd have 4g unlimited for that duration. What happens when I upgrade to another 4g phone and renew my contract. Since I'm renewing, would I still have the unlimited 4g do you think? ATT did something like that when the ipad first came out. They ended the unlimited data a couple months after it's release, but as long as you had the unlimited before they ended it and never let it expire after that, you had unlimited data. Thoughts?

 

[kentl901]

Hey all, I'm going to revive this thread because I'm considering the Charge myself.

As I debate whether to go 3G (again) or 4G, I think its a no brainer if I'm going to pay for the same price per month.

Anyway, I'm currently a Droid X user. Going from 1 core to 1 core isn't a big deal. The big draw is the 4G. As some users mentioned, the Charge may be a slower due to the extra software that they put on it (the name of it eludes me..). My dad has a Fascinate, so I definitely know how it bogs down the phone.

My question is, especially if you are a former DX user.. Does this phone feel faster than the DX or something equivalent to it?

I wanna wait for better phones, but I really want to lock in on the 4G unlimited. As of now, my best option is the Charge.

Thanks!

 

[awd]

Just got my charge for 2 weeks now. Been testing speedtest.net thru' out all over the places I been in the last 2 weeks. only 2 occasion I can only get 3G (both inside a building) and i'm getting 500-600 kpbs.(download). WHen I get 4G (99% of the time), I'm getting around over 9Mbps(download). That 15-18 times faster.... It's almost like Dailup modem vs High speed internet comparison!
so glad I went with a 4G phone instead of a 3G phone with faster processor.Especially for the same monthly data rate.

anyone getting over 10 Mbps (download) on their 4G? Is verizon 4G currently the fastest 4G network in the market today?

 

[redraider1]

Older chipset
Low ram

Unless you are used to a slower phone, the Charge is slower than the Incredible, Droid X and TB. This is due more to the slow a55 files system than anything else, but a dual core would have made it better. Catch is the Tegra 2 does not blend well with LTE, so there you go.

The key issue is $300 for a two year. Had they released at $200, it would fit the segment better. Older chipset, low ram and no internal storage. Even the Thunderbatterydrainer was priced lower.

No internal storage? It has internal storage and with the voodoo fix it changes the file system and not to mention if you check out any of the roms or anything you can see the charge is just as fast as the tb and all those phones not to mention doesnt have near the issues the tb is having

 

[redraider1]

I am extremely interested in the Charge. But I have a question about what some of you keep raising. This whole idea of being grandfathered into unlimited 4g. Say I pick up the Charge today and renew my contract for another 2 years. Obviously I'd have 4g unlimited for that duration. What happens when I upgrade to another 4g phone and renew my contract. Since I'm renewing, would I still have the unlimited 4g do you think? ATT did something like that when the ipad first came out. They ended the unlimited data a couple months after it's release, but as long as you had the unlimited before they ended it and never let it expire after that, you had unlimited data. Thoughts?

if you got it now it would be another 2 years until you have to think about it lol. Nobody knows for sure how/if verizon will grandfather

 

[redraider1]

This is the EXACT SAME conundrum for myself! I can buy a droid charge right now and get my unlimited LTE for two years past when Verizon cuts off new unlimited contracts, but the phone itself is based on hardware thats already more than a year old. But since we literally have no clue if the Galaxy S2 will even have LTE waiting it out might not actually be worth it. Seems to me the best option would be to get the charge now, sell it when a dual core/LTE phone actually does come out.....

Does anyone have any experience selling an older phone? Do they usually sell quickly?

I usually sell all my old phones to pay for a new one depends on the phone but sites like these have an interest for about every phone and depends on the price you are asking how fast it will sell. I will sell my charge if the bionic or gs2 blows my mind otherwise I will be fine with the charge until they get the 4g figured out and release some more phones with better battery.

 

[redraider1]

I just returned the Infuse for the Charge. Boy it is like 2 completely different phones. The Infuse is so much better. I hate the Charge. Couple that with Verizon's slow 3G. Not sure what I am going to do. I have 90 days with Costco if I stick it out on Verizon. I guess we will know this week about the Galaxy S2.

so you geta 4g phone and bitch because 3g is slow? Guess you aren't the brightest in the common sense department I mean you should have known if you arent in a 4g area that the phone isnt going to be any faster than a 3g phone. smh

 

[redraider1]

Is the Charge better than the Indulge? My position at Verizon is just about sealed. I'll get a sickly sweet deal on monthly rates but by law I can't sign a contract so I have to pay full for the phone with a small discount.

I refuse to go any lower than 4G. I'm too used to it. And I really don't care about price. Even at $300, I'll make my money back in less than a year compared to the $60 a month I pay for Metro.

As long as the Charge is as good or better than my Indulge I'll be fine. I'm brand-loyal to Samsung, but I also hear bad things about Blur, even though I have massive respect for the Motorola company and their history.
Gorilla glass would be nice. My boss' Droid X has no screen protector and has been dropped on its face a number of times and there isn't even a scratch.

I don't know. I have some thinking to do.

You have to sign a contract with verizon to get the charge for 300. WTH are you talking about by law you cant sign a contract? How do you expect to get the phone then

 

[jhrIII]

Just got my charge for 2 weeks now. Been testing speedtest.net thru' out all over the places I been in the last 2 weeks. only 2 occasion I can only get 3G (both inside a building) and i'm getting 500-600 kpbs.(download). WHen I get 4G (99% of the time), I'm getting around over 9Mbps(download). That 15-18 times faster.... It's almost like Dailup modem vs High speed internet comparison!
so glad I went with a 4G phone instead of a 3G phone with faster processor.Especially for the same monthly data rate.

anyone getting over 10 Mbps (download) on their 4G? Is verizon 4G currently the fastest 4G network in the market today?

I get between 9 and 11.5 North of Atlanta

 

[GunnerJim]

After reading the lame article I just read and posted in another thread that July 7th begins the new tiered pricing for VZW... We should all be running to 4G over that dual core, why??? Because it is here now and unlimited. I think VZW will reward the early adopters of 4G/LTE, everyone who drags their feet will get tiered with that smoking hot new phone...

Verizon tiered data plans coming July 7, starting at $30? (update) -- Engadget

 

[akornoway]

After reading the lame article I just read and posted in another thread that July 7th begins the new tiered pricing for VZW... We should all be running to 4G over that dual core, why??? Because it is here now and unlimited. I think VZW will reward the early adopters of 4G/LTE, everyone who drags their feet will get tiered with that smoking hot new phone...

Verizon tiered data plans coming July 7, starting at $30? (update) -- Engadget

This 100%. Going to costco soon and getting my charge and locking in the plan. Hopefully the bionic comes out with 90 days (like its supposed to) because costco allows you to return the phone and get another at the lower price.

 

[Norril]

This is a good topic. Many people that frequent message boards are just spec sheet nerds that will judge a phone they have never used based on the specs. Reading the Charge message board you will see many people leading up to its release saying this phone isnt any good. Most all of them have never used this phone yet they come to a message board specifically for this phone to tell people it isnt any good.

But the topic of LTE vs dual core is a good one. I think due to cost and possibly battery it may be a decision people have to make for a while.
I think the answer would be for each person to really think about what they use their phone for. If you play graphic intensive games a lot and dont want to miss out on some games that may be developed in the future then maybe going dual core is something you want to do. If you use your phone for streaming youtube or other video services, or pandora, rhapsody, check your fanatasy football rosters, or one of the 1000s of other things people use apps or the internet for then dual core probably wont make a bit of difference to you.

In fact i question the true need for LTE even. Other than HQ youtube videos are their any other real daily uses on your phone that would be greatly enhanced by having the blazing speed of LTE? I am just not certain yet. I have owned an EVO since launch and I have never really needed wimax 4g..I have used it a few times. But i thing many of those times I was using it just to run speedtest...I know pretty dumb. I am not a huge youtube watcher on my phone i guess.

I think the bigger deciding factor in considering the x2 vs charge may be the screen. That is something you will use many times per day every day. I havnt seen an x2 screen. But i have seen many droid x screens and the atrix screen and will say that i am generally not that impressed with Motos screens. I would rank the screens as 1. Samsung 2. Apple 3. HTC ...moto just has not made a phone yet that the screen has a majorly positive impact.

But this is a great topic. I am sure someday when the cost come down Verizon will get a dual core LTE phone. But until then we will have to decide what each of us uses are phones for more and that more important. Overall for my own personal use I would pick LTE over dual core. I dont play graphically intensive 3d game on a phone. The biggest downside to phone gaming is controls. Physic games like angry birds play just fine on a single core.

Someone may have covered this already, but the #1 reason to have LTE in my opinion, is for a live data connection, while you are on a phone call. THis is the one feature ATT always brags about in their commercials. I am on the phone a ton and I also use my Google Maps to get to business meetings. Can't do both at the same time, if I don't have LTE.

Having a good hotspot in a business meetings is nice too. On 3g, sharing your hotspot to a few people makes it unbearably slow, but on LTE, you won't have any performance issues. Honestly though, I am likely going to get a 4g LTE tablet and use it for a hotspot. Hotspots tends to shread batteries, so having a tablet sized battery is the ultimate way to go.

Pretty much everything I get on Verizon now is going to require LTE. Dual core... not so much needed for what I do. I don't phone game anymore, since I have a tablet. Nothing else on my phone needs 2 cores. A year or two, I'm sure everything will require 2 cores, but I get new phones every year.

 

[kyler13]

Someone may have covered this already, but the #1 reason to have LTE in my opinion, is for a live data connection, while you are on a phone call. THis is the one feature ATT always brags about in their commercials. I am on the phone a ton and I also use my Google Maps to get to business meetings. Can't do both at the same time, if I don't have LTE.

Having a good hotspot in a business meetings is nice too. On 3g, sharing your hotspot to a few people makes it unbearably slow, but on LTE, you won't have any performance issues. Honestly though, I am likely going to get a 4g LTE tablet and use it for a hotspot. Hotspots tends to shread batteries, so having a tablet sized battery is the ultimate way to go.

Pretty much everything I get on Verizon now is going to require LTE. Dual core... not so much needed for what I do. I don't phone game anymore, since I have a tablet. Nothing else on my phone needs 2 cores. A year or two, I'm sure everything will require 2 cores, but I get new phones every year.

I too am not a gamer, but having two kids, I'm interested in dual core for the full HD video capture capabilities.